Review: Hannah Montana: Music Jam
Publisher: Disney Developer: Disney Platforms: Nintendo DSPosted on July 2nd, 2008 at 12:33pm by EripmaV
Ok, let's make things clear for both the readers of this review and my son Alfie. I do not like Hannah Montana in any way shape or form. The sniggers and comments of me being a girl hurt. Still, for those of you unfamiliar of the show the premise is this. Hannah leads a double life as a high school student (Miley) and as a pop star Hannah! Simple.
The game you're basically in charge of running the day to day rigmarol of her life and stopping her rival from making friends and having a hit record. A bit low really, surely other girls are allowed friends and chart success? Progressing in the game, you have to perform tasks that actually benefit friends and family. Build up enough stars and hearts (more than your rival Savannah Starr) and chapter comes to an end and you're rewarded with the creation of a music video. Consisting of three distinct playing styles, the game certainly offers the player some variety in gaming terms. There's the adventure parts, instrumental whereby you're given the task to play a guitar in a similar fashion to Jam Sessions and a wee smattering of mini games.
The adventure section basically guides you from task to task, each of which are tracked on the lower screen and I imagine it loosely follows the show. You're even able to earn outfits and hairstyles to clad Hannah in whilst you play. What more could you possibly want? Navigation can be accomplished via the traditional route (as in walking to locales) or simply selecting where you want to go via the menu.
The real shame here is that the actual music section of the game is far superior to the often mediocre feeling adventure. It's a game designed for kids, based on a kids' show but I feel that even the most loyal of fans will feel let down. Graphically it's actually quite sharp and audio's reasonably represented here and of course, the music program embedded into the game is actually very good. Don't think it's up there with Jam Sessions, it's not but for what it is, it's done very well.
6/10
